


Something That Comes Easy

by deliciousshame



Series: AoKuro Week 2016 [7]
Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: AoKuro Week, AoKuro Week 2016, Kuroko no Basuke Extra Game, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-09 03:10:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6887164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/deliciousshame/pseuds/deliciousshame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His phone rings. Tetsu's number pops up. As far as Daiki's concerned, the champion could have been magnanimous and wait a little longer before trying to talk to him. He's not quite done processing everything yet.</p><p>He picks up anyway. He just can't not.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something That Comes Easy

It’s dark, it’s cold, he’s hungry, and yet he’s still here, waiting like an idiot because Tetsu called. That’s probably the start of a new pattern: him coming running when Tetsu calls. Tetsu, who just won the Winter Cup, who should have better things to do than hanging out with him. Like celebrate the win with Seirin, who’d proved they were more of a team than the Generation of Miracles ever was by overcoming every obstacle, with teamwork of all things. Talk about things he should have noticed years ago. 

The sting of the loss hasn’t completely faded yet. He still thinks back to their game, wonder what would have happened if he’d done this instead of that. How great it would have been if Kagami had raised to his challenge but still lost, leaving him looking forward to their next match, maybe during the next Interhigh. But no, like Kise, he now has to add the word revenge to his dictionary. Revenge against Tetsu, when they should have been on the same side. 

“Aomine-kun. Hello.”

For fuck’s sake. He should be used to Tetsu showing up from nowhere, but no, unlike misdirection, the effects of Tetsu’s lack of presence don’t fade with time. “Can’t you just make yourself known like a normal person sometimes, Tetsu? Why do you need me for anyways? Already bored with victory?” Wow, he managed to say that with a straight face. Go him.

“Do I need a reason to see Aomine-kun?”

The hell? “Of course you do, idiot!” Except maybe not. He didn’t even know why Tetsu had first called him so soon after The Loss, but he’d still showed up, and he’d still did his best to teach him how to shoot. 

“If I was bothering you, you could have said so and not come at all.” Damn Tetsu for still reading him better than anyone else, even after all this time. 

But Tetsu isn’t done. “Actually, I thought Aomine-kun might be the one with questions.”

“Everyone who saw that match has questions. It made no sense. Akashi syncing with his whole team, then Kagami crossing the second door? Don’t Seirin know how to play normal basket?” Of course he wonders how it feels, crossing that second gate or even playing with someone who did, the door he wasted his chance at. He’s not stupid enough to think Touou will help him with that one. The one person that can is standing right in front of him. 

“The person who shoots from any position and accesses the zone whenever he feels like really should not be talking.”

“Hey, at least I’m not Midorima.”

“No one from the Generation of Miracles has any right to complain on that topic.”

“Neither should you.”

Tetsu sighs. “Enough of this already, Aomine-kun. That’s not why I came here today.”

“Then, please, go on and tell me why.”

“Maybe I just wanted to see you. Is that bad?”

Aomine sighs. “It’s not, but I don’t get it.”

“You don’t have enough friends. Sometimes people just want to spend time with other people.”

Daiki gets the general idea, but why would Tetsu wants to spend time with him? They didn’t really talk much this past year. The last time Tetsu needed his help, and that he understands. The rest of the time, Tetsu doesn’t need him. He’s the one that would need Tetsu, if he wants to open that gate. “Okay then. Whatever. Let’s do this.”

_____________________

When he first gets the call, he thinks this might be it. This might be his chance. Ridiculously strong opponents, their old team, more or less, and Tetsu. The perfect combination to get through that second gate. 

The practice goes well. Just playing together feels easier than it did in years, and it’s all thanks to Tetsu, who pretty much literally beat sense into all their heads. They’re gonna destroy those assholes, no problem. Then they attack Tetsu, and if there was a part of him that doubted even a little, it died with their chance at victory. 

He surprises even himself when he suppresses his own play to pass to Tetsu during the actually challenging game, wow, that’s still awesome. He should get some sort of reward just for that, except he instantly did: playing with Tetsu again is its own reward. Then he even manages to play along Kise, which he did not see coming. He gets in the zone, Akashi gets in the zone, Kise gets in the zone, Kagami gets in the zone. It’s totally ridiculous and completely awesome. Of course, Tetsu and he gets the last point and win the game together. Okay, Kagami helped too, whatever.

They go out after the game, all of them together, and it’s a lot like being back in Teikou before everything went to hell, but at the same time it’s nothing like that. They’ve never really been that close, all of them. Even back then, it was mostly him and Tetsu. It’s still like that, despite Satsuki and Kise and Kagami. Tetsu’s sitting by his side all evening, even when he talks with other people. It’s not strange. After that first Winter Cup, they’ve slipped back into their old friendship faster than he ever thought they would, with the kind of ease he hadn’t suspected existed between them. Having Tetsu by his side feels normal now. It’s nothing to think about. That’s just where he should be. 

It’s only when he gets back to his bed later that night, thinking back on the day’s events, that he realises he did not cross the gate that the Tetsu that lives inside him guards, despite all that happened. Why not? He should have had everything he needed for it at hand. 

Maybe he didn’t need it. Maybe he’ll never reach it. 

Maybe it doesn’t matter. 

_____________________

Daiki only realises they’re dating long after the fact, when Tetsu says something cute and slurps his milkshake, and Daiki thinks he wants to kiss him, and he’s surprised by how unsurprising the thought is. He’s also surprised by the conviction that Tetsu would not only not mind, he’d welcome it. That’s all very clear to him at the moment. 

It’s just that they don’t go to the same school, so if they want to see each other they have to hang out somewhere, and at some point he started becoming aware of what he was wearing and not being late and making sure Tetsu was having fun doing whatever they did that day, and Tetsu stopped wandering off when Daiki looked somewhere else just a second, damn it, all his attention focused on Daiki and nothing else. With that came late night texting sessions when everyone else was sleeping, meetings to study together where Tetsu half-heartedly tried to get him to work and gave up minutes after to watch a movie with him, sitting a little too close. And if sometimes Daiki slipped an arm around his shoulders or his waist, well, Tetsu never said anything about it, so that had to be fine, no?

Now that he knows, he should probably acts like a decent boyfriend. After the date (yes, it was a date), he walks Tetsu back to his home and kisses him right on the porch, like a complete fucking cliché, but clichés are clichés for a reason, the street is empty and Daiki will give a piece of his mind to anyone that has a problem with it. 

(In fact, Daiki thinks all those things after the fact. On the spot, he has no time for anything other than _finally_.)

_____________________

It’s only months after that first kiss, long enough for everyone that matters to have figured out they don’t only act like a married couple, they’re probably planning the wedding already (Midorima’s, of all people, words, not his), that Daiki figures he hasn’t given even a passing thought to that gate since the match against Jabberwock. 

It doesn’t shock him. He has solved the most important part of that mystery, its warden, and made him his. Whatever is hidden behind it, discovering it can’t possibly be more important than that. That’s a trade he would make again any day of the week. 

Tetsu smiles, like he knew what thought just crossed Daiki’s head. Tetsu smiles more than he used too. So does Daiki. So no, he’ll never change his mind about that. So worth it.

**Author's Note:**

> And that was it for this year's AoKuro Week! I want to thank everyone that participated or left me notes, kudos, comments or bookmarks. You've all been wonderful. Hopefully I won't completely disappear. Maybe I'll take prompts or something.


End file.
